General Chat

How can I contact genesreunited - is there a telephone number?
I have sent emails but no response.
Someone has my entire personal family tree, living and dead on genes, only details that I would know.
Have no idea who this person is, am not related and they will not respond to my polite enquiries. Plus have no idea HOW they have my personal stuff, a mystery.
Any suggestions? don't really want to go solicitor route.
Hilary :-0

:-S

"only details that I would know"

Have you checked who you have given permission to view your tree ?

Have you just sent the emails to 'support'? Try one to the "abuse manager" ( see Help section top of page) as the person with the tree cannot have living people on it without their permission.

We don't 'think' they have an office phone number, but you could use

[email protected]

As they have broken the T& C by showing living relatives without their permission, you can ask GR to delete those. Unfortunately, that does not apply to names of the deceased - almost anyone can research records from the comfort of their armchair, certainly up to 2006.

FH can be a 'bug' and it is not unusual for researchers to follow all and every lead they find, as far as they can regardless of any 'blood' ties.

Perhaps they got the personal details from someone you have told/shared with, or off a tree on another site? Possibly one of your own relatives has been less than discreet?

Must have been when I replied, or mailed someone few years ago. Genes automatically gives people acces to your tree unless you uncheck the box - personally it should be the other way round!
The info on there is very personal - there is no way they could know my daughter's father's name, my adopted half sister's husband etc etc nor what nursing home i was born in. Nor my grt uncle's nickname!
The roads in which my rellys were born would only be known if this person had bought the certificates. I have no close rellys doing research, so haven't a clue who it could be, totally stumped.
My siblings are still alive and so are my aunts and uncles, their partners etc! I will be in so much trouble if they find out. They even have my eldest daughter's father on there, my ex husband and my present partner!
But it just 'knotted' my tummy to see my parents details on there.
Have been doing this since 1999 but when I joined genes in 2004 i was still 'green' when it came to computers etc and very naive when I sent people tree reports.
For some years now, whenever I send info, i never now give details of anyone post 1900.
I sent really polite emails to this person as totally understand must have been done accidently but no replies. No replies neither from Genes! :-|
hilary

presumably, you have access to this persons tree data ..........??
so you MUST know who it is........or at least their membership number,?

also presumably you believe this person has copied all of yours,?

since you joined, have you ever had a different membership?
just wondering if you've ever had two memberships.........?

sorry if ive got it wrong.....Bob

Silly question but what are your settings ? You can block anyone seeing living relatives on your tree even if they have access from you somehow. Maybe they were just very good and tracking people down through the census and certs details that are available to all.
Not nice for you though, you have stopped any future access haven't you ?

you probably won't get a reply from GR until after 8 am Tuesday morning.

They only staff the office fully between about 8 am and 4:30 pm




sylvia

Hi Sylvia how are you ?

I have just asked someone to remove his tree.. I helped him and he sent me his tree... I have a bit of a collection of them now. Maybe I should look at them and see if I can help them further.

I very rarely look at my tree on here but had cause to the other day and was amazed at the list of people there.

Bob - No, I have just the one tree - not that dotty - yet!
Yes, I can see who it is in the contact details and I let genes know but reply came today saying if I send names of all living individuals they will request for removal on my behalf. But not any deceased.
This person has actually made name spelling mistakes, so assuming they must have physically copied the tree onto the site rather than uploading it. Plus some details would not be on birth certificate. But why would they want to put complete strangers' names on here? I find it odd.

Am also led to believe that you can only block those who have access to your tree from viewing living rellys. They still come up in search. That is what is upsetting some family members. They even have my ex on there.
Looks like I am going to have struggle with genes helping me......May just delete my entire tree from here.
Much prefer ancestry.co.uk site. Easier to control settings! easier to use as well - plus it is free......

You can hide the living people further from searches by changing their names and fudging their Yob and place of birth. For instance, my OH is named as living partner, with a slightly out YOB and UK as his place of birth, Other known living people are similary disguised.

Obviously you don't want to give personal details, but there are other sources of information apart from BMD - things like the Probate calender, (up to c1942 on line, but c the last couple of months at Century House in London) old phone directories, and even ER for the last 10 years which are on line. If a family member's death or other life event has been published in the newspaper, they also may be avilable on the internet.

Apart from the community boards, one of the selling points of GR is making contacts with people researching the same family. Once you've altered your living people, and GR have removed them from the other person's tree, you'll feel much happier.

??
Why has it taken you so long to discover this?

Its not against data to place a YOB against any name,,,,,,,,what is data proteced is personal information that could lead to identification........also why did you put such personal stuff on you tree in the first place,?